The Early Christians Make the Case

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The Early Christians Make the Case

• A purpose of the New Testament writings is to
  enable early Christians to make the case for the
  gospel with their lips and in their lives

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Early Christians were encouraged to make the case
in challenging circumstances

• Difficulty for converts
• After you were enlightened, you endured a hard
  struggle with sufferings, sometimes being
  publicly exposed to abuse and affliction, and
  sometimes being partners with those so
  treated.you joyfully accepted the plundering of
  your property (Heb. 1032-34)
• Contd

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Early Christians were encouraged to make the case
in challenging circumstances

• Afflictions of evangelists
• I am a better servant of Christ.with far
  greater labours, far more imprisonments, with
  countless beatings, and often near death. Five
  times I have received at the hands of the Jews
  the forty lashes less one. Three times I have
  been beaten with rods once I was stoned. Three
  times I have been shipwrecked a night and a day
  I have been adrift at sea on frequent journeys,
  in danger from rivers, danger from robbers,
  danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles,
  danger in the city, danger in the wilderness,
  danger at sea, danger from false brothers in
  toil and hardship, through many a sleepless
  night, in hunger and thirst, often without food,
  in cold and exposure. And, apart from other
  things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my
  anxiety for all the churches (2 Cor. 11 23-28
  ).

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The convictions and lifestyle that the earliest
convert are instructed to have in order to make
the case are fitting in and for difficult
circumstances
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Making the case effectively in difficult
circumstances requires a rich, broad and deep
Christology
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• Christ is the inaugurator of the kingdom of God

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• Obedient Son of God

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Jesus life is attached to thelong-standing
purposes of God.
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Jesus life is attached to thelong-standing
purposes of God.

• The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he
  has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
  He has sent me to proclaim release to the
  captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to
  set at liberty those who are oppressed, to
  proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.Today
  this scripture has been fulfilled in your
  hearing. (Lk. 418-21)

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Christ conquers death

• I myself conquered and sat down with my Father
  on his throne (Rev. 321)
• Weep not lo, the Lion of the tribe of Judah,
  the Root of David, has conquered (Rev 55).

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Christs death mortally wounded the power of Sin
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Christs death mortally wounded the power of Sin

• Thereforesin came into the world through one
  man and death through sin, and so death spread to
  all humanity because all sinned (Rom 512).

• As one mans trespass led to condemnation for
  all, so one mans act of righteousness leads to
  acquittal and life for all (Rom 518).

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Believers can re-enact the unique event of
Christs conquering sin and death

• Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God
  in Christ Jesus (Rom 611)

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Consequence of Christs life, death and
resurrection is deliverance

• God has delivered us from the dominion of
  darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his
  beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the
  forgiveness of sins (Col. 113-14).
• When you were slaves of sin, you were free in
  regard to righteousness, but what return did you
  get from the things of which you are now ashamed?
  The end of those things is death. But now that
  you have been set free from sin and have become
  slaves of God, the return you get is
  sanctification and its end, eternal life. For
  the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of
  God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord
  (Rom 620-23).

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Christ is more than the answer to a problem

• In the beginning was the Word and the Word was
  with God, and the Word was God he was in the
  beginning with God (John 11-2)

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Christ is divine

• Gods Son reflects the glory of God and bears
  the very stamp of his nature (hypostasis) (Heb.
  13)
• In Christ the whole fullness of God was
  pleased to dwell (Col 119)

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Christ is instrumental in creation

• All things were made through him, and without
  him was not anything made that was made (John
  13)
• Christ is the image of the invisible God, the
  first-born of all creation for in him all things
  were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and
  invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
  principalities or authorities all things were
  created through him and for him (Col 115-16)
• In many and various ways God spoke of old to our
  fathers by the prophets but in these last days
  he has spoken to us by a Son whom he appointed
  the heir of all things, through whom also he
  created the world (Heb. 11-2)

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Christ now sustains creation

• In him all things hold together (Col 117)
• Christ is upholding the universe by his word of
  power (Heb 13)

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Christ will return as Gods agent of deliverance
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Christ will return as Gods agent of deliverance

• You turned to God from idols, to serve a living
  and true God, and to wait for his Son from
  heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who
  delivers us from the wrath to come (1 Thess
  19-10)
• The high priest asked him, Are you the Christ,
  the Son of the blessed? And Jesus said, I am
  and you will see the Son of man seated at the
  right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds
  of heaven (Mark 1461-62)
• I consider that the sufferings of this present
  time are not worth comparing to the glory that is
  to be revealed to usthe creation will be set
  free from its bondage to decayin this hope we
  were saved (Rom 818-24)

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Christs body is the church
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Christs body is the church

• Christ is before all things, and in him all
  things hold together, he is the head of the body,
  the church (Col 117-18)
• God has put all things under Christs feet and
  has made him the head over all things for the
  church, which is his body (Eph 122-23)

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The writers of the NT did not make the gospel
flat or simple they took time with their
churches to unravel the glories of what God had
done in Christ and of the very being of Christ.
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Making the case with integrity
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Making the case with integrity

• I count everything as loss because of the
  surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all
  things, and count them as refuse, in order that I
  may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a
  righteousness of my own, based on law, but that
  which is through faith in Christ, the
  righteousness from God that depends on faith
  that I may know him and the power of his
  resurrection and may share his sufferings,
  becoming like him in his death, that if possible
  I may obtain the resurrection from the dead
  (Phil 38-11)

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Making the case through love

• By this it may be seen who are the children of
  God and who are the children of the devil
  whoever does not do right is not of God, nor he
  who does not love his brother (1 John 310)
• The one who does not love abides in death
• (1 John 314)
• Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of
  God, and those who are born of God and know
  God.we love because he first loved us
• (1 John 4 7f, 19)

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In order to make the case for the gospel, it is
essential that believers both think deeply about
Christ and live lives that reflect the gospel
they proclaim
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Making the case inchallenging circumstances

• Worthy art thou, for you were slain and by
  your blood you ransomed humanity for God from
  every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
  (Rev. 59)
• Though Christ was in the form of God, he did
  not count equality with God a thing to be
  grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of
  a servant, being born in the likeness of
  humanity, and being found in human form he
  humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
  even death on a cross therefore God has highly
  exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is
  above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
  knee should bow, in heave and on earth and under
  the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus
  Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father
• (Phil 26-11)

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Making a convincing case for the gospel can only
be done if the love of Christ controls us (2
Cor. 514)
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